Freshwater mandola

[Steve Baker]

Hi All

A Freshwater (tenor) mandola at a good price has caught my eye. Has anyone here had the chance to spend some quality time with one? All impressions welcome.

Thanks.

Steve http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Steve L]

Steve, try the search function. There used to be quite a lot of Freshwater discussions that have all but died out recently. More conversations about octaves and zouks than mandos and dolas but some of those as well.

The consensus seemed to boil down to intruments that are nicely built by a very good guy that have somewhat higher action than anticipated when shipped and leave a bit to be desired in the volume department.

If the price is good, why not get it? He's not shipping to the US anymore and you could almost surely sell it here if you don't like it.

[entau]

Freshwaters are flatops - ussually made of American black walnut with spruce tops -
the walnut is an entirely different sound - longer sustain - but softer attack- more complex - not really intended for BG( doesn't mean you can't play BG on them)

I had 2 -an octave and a mandocello
the octave -(long scale 21cm) had a built in preamp and low action the neck was actually great - it had the round hole - so volume even unplugged wasn't that bad-
was destroyed in a car accident.
still have the mandocello
this has a pretty fat neck - and the celtic sound hole - volume is definatley lessened by that - but an open plucked sting will ring for quite some time.


yes the action and volume can be an issue - but it all depends -
if it is not amplified - can be hard to hear at a jam

all that aside they are well made and David is a super nice guy.

so an octave mandola I believe is David's idea of a short scale octave mandolin - which I'm guessing means the low end might not be that deep

but I would go for it - I don't think you will be dissapointed.

[Steve Baker]

Thanks! I believe I'll give it a try.

Steve